


Memories

by Eyleeyen



Category: Outer Wilds (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:13:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27958937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eyleeyen/pseuds/Eyleeyen
Summary: Having explored everything, the newest recruit of Outer Wilds Ventures finds theirself stuck in an evolving yet stagnating world.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	Memories

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoy! ::)

Snacking on roasted marshmallows in a quiet island of the cyclone-filled Giant’s Deep. The Recruit and their time buddy Gabbro tell countless stories, mostly tales about The Recruit’s countless exploits and Gabbro’s ruminations about the situation they were in. Gabbro saw The Recruit as if they’re a legend, more than Feldspar’s greatness. And as amazing as Feldspar’s piloting skills were, it didn’t come close to The Recruit’s achievements.

As much as they liked the infinite time they had at their disposal—free to do whatever they pleased without the temporal restraints. It just so happened that it was right at the end of everything.

It was a huge bummer to say the least. Especially since they were starting to feel the stagnating nature of a time loop. About it’s little annoyances, unwitnessed achievements and accomplishments—what they were doing was for their community but there was a sense of satisfaction that Gabbro liked to feel and what The Recruit wanted to experience. It made the growing loneliness of their indefinite situation greater than ever.

In space, no one can hear you cry. Unless someone back home managed to hear them on their signalscope. Then they’ll get hounded by the townsfolk about coming back home from time to time to recuperate.

“I feel you.” Gabbro empathized, ever laying on the hastily built hammock, uncaring about the nearby cyclones. Death wasn’t a concern, they’ll come back anyway.

“The first few... How many times did we loop now?” They asked.

The Recruit replied, munching on freshly roasted mallows as they put a new one on their standard-issue camping stick, “We’re in the four hundred and twenty sixth loop at the moment. Thirteen minutes in.”

“Oh wow. That many times now, huh.” While The Recruit couldn’t see Gabbro’s face, they could imagine their surprised face. “Twenty-two minutes right?”

The Recruit put the marshmallow over the campfire. "Yup."

“So it’s been nine thousand three hundred sixty-three minutes since our first loop. That’s about one hundred fifty-five hours,” They paused, mostly in disbelief, “Wow.”

The soft, white marshmallow roasting in the campfire turned into a crispy golden brown.

The Recruit blew on the hot mallow, cooling it off, then ate it whole. They moaned in pain, their mouth wide open to let cool air in. Gabbro saw the sweet, piping hot pillow rolling over their tongue. The Recruit apologized with an occupied mouth. Gabbro snickered from their pain as The Recruit finally cooled the mallow down enough for proper consumption. They stab another mallow and put it over the fire.

“So yeah, while the first hundred loops were fine and dandy, the next few hundred were kind of agonizing—the peace and quiet can only do so much as well as radioing the others with the loop being a thing. It’s annoying to put it lightly.”

“And very depressing in actuality, at least for me," The Recruit sighed. "In one loop, I’ve told Hornfels that Feldspar was alive and well in Dark Bramble. I could feel the happiness and relief radiating from their body. And to see it reverted back in the next loop? I’ve never felt so depressed in my life.” 

“How’d you get by? Despite the whole infinite time business and the impending death. I know you meditate but that’s about it. I don’t see you exploring—or maybe we just haven’t passed by each other,” The Recruit changed the subject.

“You know... with meditation, tons of naps, flute-playing and listening to others play their music. Also early deaths via cyclones, drowning, foreign objects smacking me head on and et cetera but that’s besides the point,” Gabbro explained, their hammock swinging harder from the nearby cyclone, trees and plants swung along with the angry winds. “By the way, speaking of foreign objects, I got hit by the probe in one loop. That wasn’t peaceful.”

“What were the odds?” The Recruit asked, genuinely curious about the chances. It wasn’t often that someone would get killed by a space probe.

Gabbro explained the odds with an uncomfortable amount of calculations, The Recruit eagerly listened.

Taking every possible direction that the Orbital Probe Cannon could fire at, the chances were astronomically smaller than anything they could comprehend at the moment.

“And funnily enough, death by supernova is way more common than we’d like,” Gabbro added.

“At least we get a gorgeous view before we die and wake up again.” If there’s one thing that The Recruit is good at, it’s finding the silver linings.

“That’s true.”

A short silence. The crackling campfire sang along with the calm waves and the mild breeze.

“To be perfectly honest with you, the reason why you don’t see me exploring was because,” Gabbro took a short pause, “I’m kind of stranded here. I’ve been trying to find my ship and no dice. It probably got tossed into space. I hope it isn’t lonely.” Gabbro looked at the horizon, hoping that their ship was still inside the planet.

The Recruit knew Gabbro was very laid back to the point it looked like laziness, but they had a reasonable excuse.

Gabbro noticed their friend paying no mind about their marshmallow turning dark over the fire, slowly melting away, vanishing soon after.

“By the way, your marshmallow’s gone.” The Recruit put another mallow in the stick, ready for roasting.

Knowing full well that the senior travelers didn’t have the luxury of convenience they had now, they still ask, “Don’t you have a ship tracker in your helmet? Surely you have one.”

“Nope.”

“Oh.” The Recruit already expected that answer but was still surprised. Their tech back then was severely lacking yet they somehow managed to go to space with scrap metal, a bunch of wooden planks and duct tape. As well as the technology the Nomai had left behind.

“Oh yeah. You have all the quality of life stuff being the newest recruit and all. All we have is a literal killer autopilot.” 

The Recruit laughed, “Believe or not, I got to experience that monstrosity first hand. I found it scarier than the entirety of Dark Bramble to be honest.”

“Oh my stars, what happened?”

The Recruit shared stories of unfortunate accidents with their “Powerful Death-Trap” as Engineer Slate called their ship in one loop.

“I was just out of the White Hole Station, then decided to go here. Kind of forgot that orbits were a thing because as I was checking my logs, everything got brighter and hotter in a way you wouldn’t believe.”

Gabbro gently laughed at their story. “The sun’s very warm hugs IS to die for.”

“You could say it like that.” The Recruit grinned.

“Thank the stars we’re in a loop right?”

“Yeah.”

“Also went straight into its fiery pits when I was trying to do some practice runs from Ash Twin to The Vessel. Thank the stars I wasn’t holding the warp core when that happened.” The Recruit kept snacking, roasting three marshmallows at the same time because they couldn’t bother doing it one by one. They just wanted to eat.

“I wonder what would’ve happened if you died while the Ash Twin Project is offline?”

“Without the thing powering the reason for the loops? Permanent death and that’s it. The end.” Both of the astronauts went quiet. The campfire danced along with the howling winds of the mad cyclones as its strong gusts along with the ocean’s harsh waves filled their deep silence.

“You know, you could easily end everything now. You have all the information you need to pull it off,” Gabbro rambled, not paying attention to their friend who was drowning inside their thoughts. “The Eye of The Universe. Can’t believe that we’ve managed to find what The Nomai have been looking for. It’s kind of a bummer they got erased from existence. All within a moment’s notice, but hey, you could finish their job.” They finally stopped rambling. And the silence grew deeper.

Gabbro sincerely apologized, hoping that they didn’t make them uncomfortable.

The Recruit put their roasting stick away. “I don’t know,” They answered. Thinking of what to say next, their mind was overwhelmed by the thoughts rambling within. “I like being alive, but as you said, no one wants to spend an eternity getting blown up by the sun and we learned—dying along with the universe.”

The Recruit asked the same question, "Do you want it to end?"

“Nope. I also like being alive. I like camping and our universe offers a lot of spots. Well... offered.”

Silence.

“You know what sucks?” The Recruit asked.

“What?”

“Out of all the days the universe could end, it ends on my first launch.” They laugh at their situation. “Despite getting slightly sick of everything because of the loop, I’m kind of thankful that I got to experience all of this.” They spread their arms and looked above to emphasize their point.

“You’re glad to experience the dark clouds and the bunch of cyclones that’s literally behind you? Heh, that's funny,” Gabbro grinned. "I'd hold on to a tree if I were you." 

Before they could react their little island was instantly swallowed by air, their campfire extinguished in an instant as they flew away from the deep waters and into the sky. Gabbro was somehow still at their hammock while The Recruit was stuck on the ground from the island’s upwards velocity after failing to grab a tree. The Recruit was successful at putting their helmet on, Gabbro never removed theirs. They could've let the outer wilds be the cause of this loop's end but their instincts only postponed the inevitable.

“This is not going to be a pleasant one,” Gabbro commented. They played the flute—the ballistic air sang along with its low notes. 

Still, it gave them time to chat a little longer before a messy death.

There was sudden complete silence. They were finally beyond the planet’s atmosphere. The Recruit could feel their body float away from the sandy ground and into the wild space, never even bothering to grab onto something. Same went for Gabbro, who just let the frictionless vacuum separate them from the comfort of their hammock and despite the deafening silence.

The campfire's embers completely died out. They could see the doomed sun looming over everything in the distance. A red giant orbited by the measly planets.

The radio inside their helmets crackled, establishing contact.

"So, what's your plan now? Over." The insides of The Recruit's helmet were filled by Gabbro's voice.

"Definitely taking a few loops for myself. Give myself a moment to rest. We have infinite time to just do whatever. Over," The Overwhelmed Recruit replied.

"You really need to take a break. You’ve been working like mad. I’d say that you’re even crazier than Feldspar with the amount of stuff that you’ve done. That’s a good thing by the way. Over.”

The Recruit dismissed their praise. “Nah.”

"As much as I want you to chill with me, there's way better places than here. In fact, all planets have their own relaxing spots, and it's even more relaxing with the other travelers there. Except Dark Bramble, nothing's relaxing there. Over."

"Feldspar's camp is relaxing. Over."

"Camping inside the remains of a giant anglerfish inside a realm full of live anglerfish isn’t relaxing but it does sound cool, I’ll give you that. Over."

The Quantum Moon suddenly popped into existence and vanished in a blink of an eye.

Blinking rapidly as they tried to make the moon appear again, The Recruit asked, "What about you? Over."

"I'm not bound by this crazy water world, so I'll get up and get my limbs stretched. I need to find my ship and to finally go explore for once. Before you go relax, could you help me find my ship? Over."

Despite their soundless space, Gabbro continued playing the flute. Despite the silence, The Recruit could imagine what their song sounded like.

The pair were so immersed into their conversation that they forgot about the Sun’s demise. They watched as it rapidly contracted.

Their little floating island stops, then slowly gets closer to the planet, faster and faster with every passing second.

“Sure.” The Recruit promised as the sun let out its last hurrah, engulfing the measly planets nearby with a cool shade of blue. Time was up.

A long pause for their realizations. The island reentered the planet first along with Gabbro. Sound came back as the loud wheezing wind along with Gabbro's tune passed through their ears.

“Ow.” The Recruit complained, watching the light engulfed their home.

Gabbro stopped playing their flute, "Sorry about that. See you next loop?"

"See you next loop." The Recruit bid farewell, their body pulled in by the planet’s gravity.

Their suits were specialized for space travel, but not from the violence of velocity. 

The Recruit heard the radio let out a bang before a quick silence. That was it for Gabbro. The Recruit followed soon after, their heart screamed from anxiety as the end came closer and closer.

Their body fell to the sand first, their insides shattering into a million pieces along with their helmet and suit. Their body ignored the pain from the sudden shock. They wanted to say that they were used to it, but they really weren’t. The adrenaline vanished within a moment’s notice when a bright white light swallowed everything.

Before their consciousness gave up, a loud bang of the sun’s final breath erupted at their ears. The Recruit died, experiencing unimaginable pain as their thoughts come to a halt.

A bronze Nomai mask appeared in the distance, their flashing memories of the loop accompanied by alien runes.

On their usual spot beside the campfire, under the stars, The Recruit awakened once more. Every inch of pain inflicted by the outer wilds culminated with a heavy sigh. They saw Giant’s Deep plastered in the spotty dark skies, a blue light zipping past it. It filled them with curiosity before, and over the course of their indefinite journey—the magic vanished.

Beside them, a soft campfire danced along with the calm breeze. Unlike the mind boggling intensity of a supernova, the fire’s warm breath was comforting, as if it was a loving embrace.


End file.
